Saturday, July 31, 2010

The last time I recall the nation being this concerned over the state of the presidency was during the Lewinsky scandal and ensuing impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Before that it was during the slow revelation of the Watergate scandal that finally forced Richard Nixon’s resignation. On Thursday, July 22, an editorial opinion by Tom Tancredo in The Washington Times called for the impeachment of President Obama. A column by Jeffrey Kuhner was titled “President’s socialist takeover must be stopped.”

Tancredo, a former five-term member of Congress, is now the chairman of the Rocky Mountain Foundation. Kuhner, a Times columnist, is president of the Edmund Burke Institute.

Burke, an Irish orator, philosopher and politician (1729-1797) is best known for his warning that “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing", but he also said, “Men have no right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands is the care of our own time.”

It is the conceit of every generation that those that preceded it were less sophisticated, but it is clear from Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Paper number 65, published in the New York Packet on March 7, 1788, that the question of impeachment as defined in the Constitution was being debated, the subtleties of the issue were not only understood by the author, but by Americans of his era as well.

Hamilton wrote: “A well-constituted court for the trial of impeachments is an object not more to be desired than difficult to be obtained in a government wholly elective. The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated political, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself. The prosecution of them, for this reason, will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused.”

The removal of Barack Hussein Obama from the office of the presidency is increasingly spoken of among concerned Americans and now has risen to the level of discussion in print. The two Times articles enumerated the reasons why.

Tancredo began by reminding us that “every citizen elected to serve in Congress or any person appointed to any federal position” must swear an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.”

“For the first time in American history,” said Tancredo, “we have a man in the White House who consciously and brazenly disregards his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.”

Going straight to the heart of the issue confronting all Americans, Tancredo said, “Our president is an enemy of the Constitution and, as such, he is a danger to our safety, our security, and our personal freedoms.”

Kuhner wrote that Obama is “slowly, piece by piece, erecting a socialist dictatorship. We are not there yet, but he is putting America on that dangerous path. He is undermining our constitutional system of checks and balances, subverting democratic procedures and the rule of law…”

Tancredo listed what he regards as impeachable offenses which the Constitution describes as “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Impeachment has twice been attempted in the nation’s past and neither succeeded. Among those cited by Tancredo are:

# Disenfranchising General Motors and Chrysler bondholders in order to transfer billions of investor dollars to his supporters in the United Auto Workers;

# Implementing a third ban on off-shore drilling despite the rejection by two federal courts.

# The appointment of judges who want to create law rather than interpret it.

# The failure to defend the nation’s southern border against an invasion of illegal aliens.Tancredo could have added the questionable demand that BP create a $20 billion fund to cover the cost of the oil cleanup and the losses incurred by those affected by it. That was entirely without any previous historic or legal precedent.

The creation, too, of an entire level of presidential advisors (czars) within the White House who appear to have been granted greater powers than Secretaries of various federal departments in determining policy is highly questionable. Few underwent any examination by the Senate.

Kuhner warned about Obamacare’s funding of abortion, along with the creation of “a command-and-control health care system, “a frontal assault on property rights”, the new financial reform act that he deemed “essentially nationalize the big banks” while noting the same effect on the financial sector, and the student loan industry. He too noted the takeover of the automakers.

Kuhner warned that Obama’s “comprehensive immigration reform” would grant amnesty to 12 to 20 million illegal aliens “would sound the death knell for our national sovereignty.” The Obama Justice Department’s decision to sue Arizona for its immigration law was deemed as “siding with criminals against his fellow Americans” and desecrated his constitutional oath.

Kuhner deemed it “treasonous.”Kuhner urged that, should the Republicans win back Congress in November “formal investigations into this criminal, scandal-ridden administration” should be launched.

I doubt that even Republican control of Congress in both houses would undertake impeachment proceedings against Obama. That did not go well when it was tried against Clinton. At best a Congress in which they controlled either or both houses would become a bulwark against further predations by the first Marxist president ever elected in America and, hopefully, the last.

Alan Caruba

******************Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Ok -- so what is a fascist? According to The Urban Dictionary a fascist is "someone who believes in a totalitarian state rule by a supreme leader (dictator) who controls everything possible and treats people harshly -- to gain the leader's own success...." (SOURCE)Sound familiar? In a piece by John Griffing, published at American Thinker, Mr. Griffing says the following: "At its core, fascism is really just a system where government, through agreements with the private sector, controls virtually all property and income indirectly and Obama has embraced this template."

Mr. Griffing goes on to say: "Fascism is correctly associated with tyranny since nations that employ the tenets of fascism almost always transition from a republican or parliamentary form of government to some sort of personality cult usually centered on an economic "savior." Fascism requires extensive state control, and if this control is not centralized in a singular personality, the results will be muddied and plagued with excessive overlap. All of Obama's actions have highly fascist overtones." Read the entire article here (SOURCE)It is gratifying, to say the least, to find someone who agrees with our viewpoint of Obama and his regime. It is truly frightening to see America being fundamentally changed from a constitutional republic into a fascist dictatorship under Obama. But, that is what we have in America today.

What? You say it can't happen in America? Well, I hate to disagree with your assessment, but dear reader, it already has happened. The task of freedom loving Americans now -- IS TO CHANGE IT BACK! That goal is becoming ever more difficult, with every passing day, as the line between the private sector and the public sector is being systematically and intentionally blurred by the Obama Regime. You may not wish to admit it, even to yourself, but, as Mr. Griffing says in his article at American Thinker, "individual liberty can often be conditioned on complicity with state aims, as manifested in the private sector sphere." He is spot on!

Look, we Americans are being "conditioned" by the Obama Regime to jump through any hoop Obama should hold up in front of us.

Many weeks ago we warned of an avalanche of taxes on the horizon for America. That avalanche is about to come rumbling down to crush the last remnant of resistance to the Obama fascist agenda.

Obama and the democrats have bankrupted America. We are broke. There is no more money available within the government budget to stave of the insolvency of America.

So what must happen? Huge tax increases. As Charles Krauthammer has warned us: "There just isn't enough to cut elsewhere to prevent national insolvency. That will require massive tax increases, most likely a European-style value-added tax." Read the entire article here (SOURCE)

Americans who have already been mentally "conditioned" will simply lie down and allow the Obama taxes, such as the VAT tax, to wash over them. Those of us who are not "conditioned" will fight it every step of the way. Even the Vat tax is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. It cannot cover the shortfall of funds America faces in the future.

Only a strong fascist leader could "condition" Americans to accept what is coming next -- the looting of the individual American.

In an article at the American thinker written by Kyle Anne Shiver and entitled: "Barack Obama, the Quintessential liberal fascist" Shiver says: "Neither did Barack Obama invent the political "ideology of change," nor design its carefully crafted propaganda. While media folks talked of the tingles up their legs and the brilliant rhetoric of Barack Obama, they were heralding the speaker only, not the creator of the movement and its slogans. That would have been Saul Alinsky, the man who took fascism and cunningly made it appear to casual observers every bit as American as apple pie.

Barack Obama is merely the movement's closer, the quintessential liberal fascist with a teleprompter." Read the entire article here(SOURCE)As much as I dislike admitting it, we HAVE become conditioned “not to see the forest for the trees.” We inhabit Obama’s fascist America, yet we don’t seem able to see it for what it is. Today we Americans seem to lack what the military refers to as “situational awareness.” Just as on the battlefield where lack of situational awareness can easily lead to the demise of the individual, it can also lead the people of a country into placidly standing by as their nation is hi-jacked and “fundamentally changed,” from a nation where the government serves the people -- to a nation where the people serve the government.

That has already happened. The question now is -- can we change it back to its rightful condition. We have a chance this November to begin that renewal. Lets not allow the chance to save America pass us by. It MAY be our last chance.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Mailed Fist of the Federal Government Slams ArizonaStates Should Revive the Practice of “Nullification”A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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What we saw occur in Arizona this week, with a federal district judge gutting a law passed by the Arizona state legislature and signed into law by the governor of that state is nothing less than spitting in the face of “states rights!”

We Americans have already fought one civil war over this very thing -- and the federal government is dragging us ever closer to another American holocaust.

Think about it: The US federal government refuses to enforce the laws of the land and then has the audacity to slap down the people of the states when they attempt to enforce those same laws.

All this time I have been laboring under a misconception. See, I was taught, and I was reared to believe, that the US was a nation of laws and that no person or entity was above the law. Well, it turns out I was WRONG! But I had to wait until the socialist Obama and his henchman hi-jacked the US government to learn that I had been wrong all this time.

I have learned something from all of this. It is that the law does not matter – unless -- it can be used (by those in power) to get something they want. If applying the law will constrain them from something they dearly want, then -- to hell with the law.

At the moment, Obama wants the Hispanic vote in 2012. He will move heaven and earth, tread on anyone who gets in his way, use the mailed fist of the federal government to crush whoever and whatever gets in his way -- the same as any other tin pot dictator in the western hemisphere. America is looking more and more, everyday, like one of the “banana republics” we used to make jokes about. Now that we are one – it ain’t funny!

In the years before the American civil war, when Washington was tyrannizing the southern states on a regular basis (much as they are doing to the entire country today) the southern states began nullifying those federal laws. Why did they think they could do that? Well one of the Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, said in the Kentucky Resolution the following:

“Resolved, that the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that by compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force: That to this compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral party, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party….each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.” Alien and Sedition Acts and States’ rights (Texas Fred has an excellent article from which this was drawn at: http://texasfred.net/archives/7233)

I say again, the underlying cause of the American civil war was not slavery, as we have been taught, it was the abuse of the rights of the states by the heavy-handed federal government – just as the federal government is doing today!

They say history repeats itself – and today we have the evidence right before our eyes.

How much more of Obama’s high-handed tyrannical tactics are the American people going to suffer before they bow their backs and say: ENOUGH!

One good thing may come from this demonstration of what happens when a country’s all too powerful central government runs amuck. If nothing else, this move by the judge in Arizona should seal the election in November for the Republicans.

Now that Americans have seen that the Obama Regime is intent on securing its hold on the government, not only in Washington, but in their states, as well, it should cut through the smoke screen of flowery oratory, and expose the skull and crossbones hidden within.

Remember this: if your state has no rights, YOU, my fellow Americans, have no rights, either!

Remember Arizona in November. Let nothing deter you. RUN to the polls in November -- and reclaim America. Do not allow the history books to record that Americans lost their country to a great orator much as the Germans of the 20th century did. As they learned, too late, it was the road to utter destruction.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The unemployment rate keeps climbing and the polling results for the President and Congress keep falling. Conservatives are well aware that the Obama administration has relentlessly pursued legislation harmful to the economy, but just how bad it is and how bad it will become in 2011 may not have sunk in fully for the public in general.

Nothing among Obama’s legislative agenda and executive orders has done anything other than push the nation more and more toward bankruptcy. Perhaps the oddest aspect has been the action of the Federal Reserve which is, in theory, an independent entity. Suffice to say, it is pursuing policies that reflect the same disastrous actions that prolonged the 1930s Great Depression. Not surprisingly, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has pronounced the outlook “unusually uncertain.”

The worst is yet to come because the end of the Bush tax cuts on December 31, 2010 will generate major increases in taxation that will affect all but the appalling 40% who pay no taxes at all. This isn’t redistribution of wealth. It is a penalty levied on investors, entrepreneurs, and those who still have jobs.

One of those policies, the president’s shut-down of drilling in the Gulf, twice rejected by the courts, will add thousands more to the ranks of the unemployed without any justification.

When the tax cut deadline comes at midnight on December 31, the “death tax” on estates will return, increasing 55% on estates of $1 million or more, but it won’t just be “the rich” who are affected. As reported in Investor’s Business Daily, “The lowest bracket for the personal income tax, for instance, moves up 50%, to 15% from 10%.” These brackets will increase 25% to 39.6% for others.

The marriage penalty returns and the capital gains tax “will jump 33%” and “the tax on dividends will go all the way from 15% to 39.6%--a 164% increase.” Wall Street will hit a wall of resistance from investors. A spending-crazed Congress will have $115 billion more to waste and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, it will reach $2.6 trillion by 2020, a mere decade from now. These funds are theoretically going to be allocated toward paying for the vastly expanded Obamacare “reform” of the already insolvent Medicare program. A booklet by Michael D. Tanner, “Bad Medicine”, published by the libertarian Cato Institute, points how the fallacy—the lie—that an expanded Medicare will protect those now without such protection against rising healthcare costs. The truth is that by 2019 an estimated 21 million Americans will still be uninsured.

Obamacare will cost far more than advertised; more than $2.7 trillion over ten years of full implementation and will add $352 billion to the national debt over that period. Insurance costs will skyrocket for younger, healthier workers. Furthermore, Obamacare “will increase taxes by more than $669 billion between now and 2019, and the burdens it places on business will significantly reduce economic growth and employment.”

A July 23 Rasmussen poll revealed that 75% of likely voters say free markets are better than government management of the economy. “Americans overwhelmingly believe that more competition and less regulation are better for the economy than more regulation and less competition.”

Wayne Crews, the vice president for policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, describes what is necessary for economic recovery, citing “massive spending cuts, deregulation, privatization, tax-cutting, avoiding of monetary inflation, and elimination of government-granted monopolies and favors.” The Obama administration and Democrat-controlled Congress will not engage in any of these well known remedies. What is occurring is a deliberate policy to destroy the nation’s economy and with it the nation. The trade deficits the nation has run, importing more than we export, will ensure we do not dig ourselves out of the hole for years to come.

Writing recently in the Globe and Mail, a London newspaper, Neil Reynolds warned that “Democracies produced Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, fulfilling the expectation of Socrates and Machiavelli that democracies end in tyranny. Now democracies are fulfilling the complementary expectation of Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman that democracies end in bankruptcy.”

****************DENVER — The federal government is rapidly expanding a program to identify illegal immigrants using fingerprints from arrests, drawing opposition from local authorities and advocates who argue the initiative amounts to an excessive dragnet.

The program has gotten less attention than Arizona’s new immigration law, but it may end up having a bigger impact because of its potential to round up and deport so many immigrants nationwide.

The San Francisco sheriff wanted nothing to do with the program, and the City Council in Washington, D.C., blocked use of the fingerprint plan in the nation’s capital. Colorado is the latest to debate the program, called Secure Communities, and immigrant groups have begun to speak up, telling the governor in a letter last week that the initiative will make crime victims reluctant to cooperate with police “due to fear of being drawn into the immigration regime.”

Under the program, the fingerprints of everyone who is booked into jail for any crime are run against FBI criminal history records and Department of Homeland Security immigration records to determine who is in the country illegally and whether they’ve been arrested previously. Most jurisdictions are not included in the program, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been expanding the initiative.Full Story Here:

If you’ve ever been in the military, if you’ve ever been a police officer, a security officer, a fire fighter, a government contractor, and many other positions held by LEGAL Americans, you have been fingerprinted. Sometimes, on numerous occasions.

If you have a criminal past, an arrest record, you have been fingerprinted.

Why then, should some *immigrant group*, code words for seekers of amnesty for illegals, be so critical of fingerprinting? It’s a part of American life. Don’t they want to have their immigrants be full fledged Americans? Or do they only want to be Americans as a matter of convenience?

Why do so many of these *immigrant groups* rant and rave about having to show an I.D. card, or a Green Card? A Social Security Card? A drivers license? Any number of forms of pictured I.D. that easily verifies just who is and who isn’t supposed to be here in America?

I can understand why the Sheriff of San Francisco wanted nothing to do with the program, we’re talking sanctuary city and liberal heaven. He has to play to those that elect him if he, she?, wants to remain in office.

The same goes for Washington, D.C. They consider themselves above the law that governs us everyday folks. Didn’t the Congress and Senate exclude themselves from ObamaCare?

It’s is totally ridiculous for the United States to have aliens running around this nation with no I.D., aliens, and their supporters wanting the USA to give the *immigrants* a free pass on the use of legal identification.

I am a “Legal American Citizen,” and I must show my ID when or if I am:

1. Pulled over by the police.

2. Making purchases on my department store credit card.

3. When I show up for a doctor’s appointment.

4. When filling out a credit card or loan application.

5. When applying for or renewing a driver’s license or passport.

6. When applying for any kind of insurance.

7. When filling out college applications.

8. When donating blood.

9. When obtaining certain prescription drugs.

10. When making some debit purchases, especially if I’m out of state.

11. When collecting a boarding pass for airline or train travel.

I’m sure there are more instances, but the point is that we citizens of the USA, are required to prove who we are nearly every day!

So, why should people in this country illegally be exempt? Why shouldn’t we guard our borders as closely as every other country in the world does?

Since everyone arrested would be screened, the program could easily deport more people than Arizona’s new law, said Sunita Patel, an attorney who filed a lawsuit in New York against the federal government on behalf of a group worried about the program. Patel said that because illegal immigrants could be referred to ICE at the point of arrest, even before a conviction, the program can create an incentive for profiling and create a pipeline to deport more people.

“It has the potential to revolutionize immigration enforcement,” said Patel.

That would be the intent OF the law I believe. What part of ILLEGAL is it that these ILLEGALS and their supporters don’t understand?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Unilateral Creation of a Palestinian State by the UN?Does the Obama Regime Support UN Creation of Palestinian State?A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Palestinian Authority officials say if Israel and the Palestinians fail to reach an agreement to create a Palestinian state, the Obama administration will support a resolution at the United Nations that would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state (SOURCE).

In a report at World Net Daily, the following is reported: “Last year, Ahmed Qurei, former PA prime minister and member of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee, told WND in an interview that the PA "reached an understanding with important elements within the administration" to possibly bring to the U.N. Security Council a resolution to unilaterally create a Palestinian state.

Asked to which "elements" he was referring, Qurei would only say they were from the Obama administration.(SOURCE).

All of this just confirms our worst fears about Obama and his Regime. He is, quite likely, the least prepared President to ever hold office.

You know, I used to wonder if Obama or, at the very least, someone within his regime had actually read the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Now I add to that list of critically important documents nothing less than the Holy Bible. Obama is meddling in a situation that predates the United States of America by thousands of years. Much of the history, which leads up to the problems with Israel and their less than neighborly neighbors, is recorded in the pages of the Bible.

When one does a tiny bit of research, one finds that Israel has a claim to the Holy Land that dates back as far 3,700 years ago. They created a civilization on that terrain and developed a national language, which they have managed to maintain for at least 3,700 years.

Yes, they claim that land and they have a right to it. First, God promised the land to Abraham, then, the Jewish people moved onto to it and began to develop it and they made it their home. The world community saw it -- and recognized Israel as the home of the Jewish people and granted Israel recognition as a sovereign country ON THAT LAND.

So, how did Israel grow to the size it is today? As a result of wars that were perpetrated upon Israel by her mischievous neighbors. Israeli military forces captured the land Israel grew into as they attempted, successfully, to defend their homeland. Now, that land, too, is a part of the nation of Israel.

So what about the name Palestine? In the second century A.D., after crushing the last Jewish revolt, the Romans first applied the name “Palaestina” to Judea. Judea was the southern portion of what we now call the West Bank. It was an attempt, by the Romans, to isolate Jewish identification from the land of Israel.

There was never an independent Arab or Palestinian state in Palestine. It never existed, in all of history. In fact, when the Arab-American historian, Princeton University Prof. Philip Hitti, testified against partition before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said: "There is no such thing as 'Palestine' in history, absolutely not." In fact, Palestine is never explicitly mentioned in the Koran, rather it is called "the holy land.”

Going back to 1937 we learn that “a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, told the Peel Commission, which ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine: "There is no such country [as Palestine]! 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria." (SOURCE)

Until, roughly, 1967 the Arabs referred to that piece of ground as “southern Syria. “The representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations submitted a statement to the General Assembly in May 1947 that said, "Palestine was part of the Province of Syria" and that, "politically, the Arabs of Palestine were not independent in the sense of forming a separate political entity." A few years later, Ahmed Shuqeiri, later the chairman of the PLO, told the Security Council: "It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria." (SOURCE)

One must consider God’s promise to Abraham, the creation of a Jewish homeland with Jewish settlements upon the land as far back as 3,700 years ago -- up to today. Then, one must consider so much more including the Balfour Declaration of 1917; the League of Nations Mandate, which incorporated the Balfour Declaration; the United Nations partition resolution of 1947; and Israel's admission to the UN in 1949. And, finally, add to all of the above the recognition of Israel as a sovereign nation by most of the country’s of the world. I suspect the Israeli Jews would ask that an observer also note their thriving society.

Now, when you consider all of the above, you must ask yourself why anyone would want the people of Israel to give up their ancestral homeland, the land God gave them, to the people of a country that never, in all of history, EVER existed.

Remember, too, that these people, of a fantasy country, want nothing more than to push the Jews off their land and into the sea -- wiping them out of existence.

THAT is where Obama’s policy toward Israel and the so-called Palestinian people will lead.

When all of this is considered -- aren’t we justified in asking if Obama’s ties to the Muslim world are so strong that he has adopted their cause as his -- and pushing the Jews of Israel into the Mediterranean Sea is the desired result for both the so-called Palestinians – and -- for the Obama Regime?

Monday, July 26, 2010

USA: Born July 4th, 1776. Died November 4th, 2008A Commentary by: J. D. LongstreetRecently, I watched a conservative commentator on TV declare the America we used to know is dead.

I immediately thought: “Well, where has HE been?” Of course, America, as a constitutional republic, IS dead! We have been saying so for well over a year now -- actually approaching two years. There is a little life left in her -- but VERY little.

Ever since Obama dropped his hand, after taking the oath of office as President of the United States of America, the systematic disassembling of America has been underway.

You have to give Obama his due. He has kept his promise to “fundamentally change” America. THAT he has done.

Ron Ewart, in an article at the Canada Free Press, recently said the following: “Comes now a man who participated in a Chicago church for twenty years that preached “Black Liberation Theology”, a theology that believes, with vehemence and much gnashing of teeth, that white America is evil and white America is still trying to keep black Americans in a state of perpetual poverty, if not slavery. “

Mr. Ewart continues: “Obama’s whole background, from the day he was born, is filled with communists, socialists, Marxists, community activists and others who seek a massive redistribution of American wealth to those who have not found their way to, or have not taken advantage of, unequaled in any country... American opportunity.” (You may read the entire article (HERE).)

In an article at Uncommon Sense the following statement is made: “So America, can you connect the dots? In just 18 months we have watched the tightening of federal controls on states and citizens that is unprecedented in American history. Our freedom and our liberty is being usurped by an over reaching federal bureauracy that has put us on a fast track to socialism or maybe even communism.”

The writer points out the following:

“We allowed the passage of a $787B economic stimulus bill.

The federal government has taken over two-thirds of the domestic auto industry.

The T.A.R.P. program passed at the end of the Bush administration was the first step in nationalizing the domestic banking system.

Using the EPA, the government has declared cabon dioxide a harmful gas and is on the path of regulating energy and the environment without regulation to further its’ agenda – bigger, more controlling government.

The FCC is working on a bailout plan for the mainstream media as well as regulations to destroy free speech. Clearly in their sights – the internet and conservative talk radio.

Recently the President signed a land grab order. Using the “1906 Antiquities Act” he ordered the federalization of 10 million acres of land in the west. This land grab will inhibit our ability to gain energy independence by cutting off access to needed resources.

The President continues his focus on “climate change” and “Cap & Trade” rather than job creation and economic growth.

Moody’s has repeatedly warned the government for the past 18 months that if we don’t reduce the debt and curtail government spending we will lose our national AAA credit rating. This will cause our interest rates to sky rocket and eventually our interest service of the debt will bankrupt the country.”

The writer goes on to mention the passage of ObamaCare and government funding for higher education. He says: “Education and Healthcare are not rights! Rights come from God not governments. This bill also includes the funding to hire 16,000 new IRS agents to aid in the enforcement of the new laws.” (Read the entire article (HERE).

If is especially distressing to realize that an entire country can be subjected to the death grip of socialism, in such a brief period of time. Our socialist Congress was elected in 2006 and our socialist President was elected in 2008 -- and that sealed the deal. Elections, as we have been told, so often, have consequences. Unfortunately for Americans the consequences of the 2006 and 2008 elections turned out to be the loss of our constitutional republic created by our Founding Fathers. We swapped it for a socialist government made up of Statists, Socialists, Progressives, Marxists, a few Communists, and a handful of liberals. We also got, in the deal, a President who, much like Julius Caesar, would be a dictator, and -- in fact he has created a cohort of minions around him to do HIS will while at the same time being answerable ONLY to him.

Our new kind of American dictator is using the power of the president’s executive orders to force his will upon the people of the US. Is this an abuse of power? Some say YES! Certainly, if it is not – it OUGHT to be!

“Statism” is now the national religion in America. Some on the American left are declaring the state as sacred and taxes as a sacrament.

Americans were once among the most God-fearing people on the planet. No longer. Now, rather than praising God and turning to Him in time of need or crisis, our government is encouraging us to praise the state and turn to it for everything -- including our sustenance. THAT is a hallmark of godless socialism.

Generations of American children were NOT taught, in our public school system, that the government of the US was founded to be a servant of the people of the states. As voting adults they don’t know the federal government is supposed to act according to the wishes of the people of the states.

They think it is exactly the opposite. Our over powerful central government now insists that Americans serve the federal government -- and it has been that way since my southern ancestors realized where the US federal government was headed, decided they wanted none of it, pulled out of the US, and formed their own country. They were forced back into the union at the point of a government bayonet. Unfortunately, that bayonet has not been sheathed since. The power of the federal government has grown steadily ever since.

Progressivism, Socialism, Marxism, all demand that the individual basically live for the state contributing everything he owns to the god of the left, -- the state.

This is where America is, in its evolution, today.

Men and women in America today have a decision to make. Americans who believe America was founded upon biblical truths, including “rights’ granted them by God, and God alone, are being told there is no such thing as rights not granted by the state. Never mind that our founding documents stress those God-given rights. Our new American socialist government views those founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution, as too old and too outdated to apply today. And the void left by those documents is being filled by a left-wing dictatorship.

Those of us, of the conservative persuasion, have danced all around creating another political party. We even have the Tea Party, which is doing a good job at educating the masses of Americans dissatisfied with this new socialist America. Truth be told, I don’t think the GOP, in its current iteration, is capable of doing much better than those leftists in power today.

I really think the time has come for an “American Party,” a true conservative political party with one goal -- and that is to return America to its founding principles as a constitutional republic -- and keep it there. I don’t think I am alone in this conviction. All one has to do is look at the Tea Party. Could the Tea Party be the foundation for a new political party in America? It certainly could be.

One thing is certain. The US is far too deeply split to continue much longer as a nation of fifty states. One does not need a crystal ball to see what lies in America’s future.

Unless American citizens are willing to make the effort to rescue their nation, America will follow all the great nations of the past into the pages of history as a “has been” giant whose people were unable, or unwilling, to live up to the high ideals set for them by the founders of the country. For instance, when a nation will not protect its own borders that, alone, speaks volumes concerning the love that nation’s people have for their country.

To survive, America must right herself, find her true bearings, and stir herself back on course with renewed vigor and determination to clean up her government by throwing off the chains of socialism and restoring those precious ideals that saw her through nearly two and a half centuries of everything fate could throw at her.

President Ronald Reagan once said: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

If we Americans choose to continue on our current course, we dishonor the men and women who founded this country and all the generations since who have loved her, cherished her, protected her, and passed her on to the capable hands of the next generarion. If we so choose, then America stops here.

The soil of this sacred ground, we call America, is soaked in the blood of patriots who gave even their last measure to preserve freedom for us. The souls of those long sainted American patriots watch from the ramparts of heaven to see how we will choose. We must not disappoint them.

To his eternal shame, in order to acquire and maintain power, President Barack Obama has adopted the Democratic Party's strategy of keeping blacks poor, angry, and voting for Democrats.

Using the politics of poverty and race-baiting, Obama garnered nearly 96 percent of the black vote that helped propel him to the pinnacle of power. That power is now being used by Obama to accomplish his liberal agenda which includes wrecking our economy and weakening our national defense, leaving us vulnerable to another terrorist attack.

Obama is trying to destroy our free enterprise system and "change" America into a failed socialist nation with growth-killing tax increases, the take over of private businesses through bailouts and trillions of dollars in irresponsible deficit spending on wasteful social programs.

Millions of jobs have been lost since the passage of Obama's Stimulus Bill that includes over 8,000 wasteful pork projects. That pork-laden bill will stimulate only the Democratic Party – not the economy, nor black communities. Incredibly, Obama turned a $450 billion deficit into a $9 trillion deficit, and he is promising to spend even more, including $1.5 trillion on a disastrous government-controlled health care scheme. All of this uncontrolled, budget-busting deficit spending will send our nation careening over an economic Cliff into oblivion.

The tens of thousands of Americans participating in Tea Parties across this country – peacefully protesting Obama's socialist actions and policies – are being mocked by President Obama and derided as "racist" by his fellow Democrats and liberal media allies, all in an effort to silence average Americans. Complaints are not allowed about the fact that under Obama's America, all Americans will be dependent on the government for their well-being, just as are poor blacks.

While professing to care about the plight of the poor, Obama continues to take actions that keep blacks impoverished, so he can use black grievances for partisan political gain. In his book "Dreams From My Father", Obama wrote disdainfully about blacks who complain about being poor, yet continue to vote for Democrats — like Obama — who keep them poor. On page 147 of his book, Obama described what he and his fellow Democrats do to poor blacks as "plantation politics" when he wrote: "A plantation. Black people in the worst jobs. The worst housing. Police brutality rampant. But when the so-called black committeemen came around election time, we'd all line up and vote the straight Democratic ticket. Sell our soul for a Christmas turkey."

While in the Illinois Senate, Obama helped keep blacks corralled on the Democratic Party's economic plantation when he provided funding for slum projects in Chicago, as was exposed in the Boston Globe article that can be found on the Internet at: HERE.

That Boston Globe article shows how Obama provided millions of tax dollars to his slum lord buddies, including now convicted felon Tony Rezko who contributed hundred of thousands of dollars to Obama's political campaign and helped Obama buy a million-dollar house in a shady real estate deal.

As President, Obama put a poison pill in the Stimulus Bill that kills welfare reform, so that tax dollars can no longer be used to help the poor become self-sufficient through job training and child care assistance. Instead welfare will, once again, become a government handout that keeps poor blacks mired in generational poverty. Welfare has destroyed the black family, and Uncle Sam has replaced the father in black urban homes.

After Obama worked to end the school choice opportunity scholarship program in the District of Columbia that helps poor blacks get a better education, he produced a budget that, astonishingly, eliminates the $85 million designated for the HBCU's (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). In typical hypocritical liberal fashion, Obama is sending his own two children to a private school, while kicking poor blacks out of that same private school and effectively sending the poor blacks back to the failing DC public school system.

Waking up to the danger Obama poses to the poor and our economy, the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) issued an alarming report showing that Obama's "cap-and-trade" mandates – designed by radical environmentalists – would make American consumers poorer and the products they buy more expensive.

The NBCC study found specifically that the cap-and-trade law, known as the Waxman-Markey legislation, will cost 2.5 million U.S. jobs by the year 2030 and reduce GDP by $350 billion. Further, it will reduce earnings for the average U.S. worker by $390 per year and reduce the average household's annual purchasing power by $830 per year. That report can be found on the Internet HERE

Another study reported by the Heritage foundation demonstrates that Obama's cap-and-trade, or "cap-and tax", law could be an even bigger economic disaster, raising electricity rates by 90 percent and the price of gasoline by 74 percent. Only a hard-core liberal would be so wedded to his liberal agenda that he would deliberately put that agenda above the well-being of the people in this country. That report may be found at: HERE.

Just as some black Republicans, including the NBRA, are fighting to help save black communities from continued destruction by the Democratic Party's socialist policies, average Americans are in a battle to save our country from being turned into a failed socialist nation by Obama and his Democrat minions. With the liberal media refusing to hold Obama accountable and Democrats in control of Congress, there is no check on Obama's power, except we, the people. Our only real weapon is our vote.

Three cheers to the sensible people in California who, by an incredible 65-35 margin, said "no" to five initiatives for higher taxes for irresponsible spending on "feel good" social programs that are wrecking California's economy. "Tighten your belt", Californians shouted at their government, each citizen wielding just one vote, but, oh, the impact of that vote. Remember also that no Republican in the House of Representatives voted for that economy-wrecking Stimulus Bill.Edmund Burke wrote: "Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."

Those who wish to stop Obama and the liberal Democrats from destroying our traditional values and plunging our nation into economic oblivion should stand up and be counted. Participate in Tea Parties. Stop funding the liberal media by cancelling your subscriptions and turning off liberal radio and TV programs. Protect your family – don't buy those tin can hybrid cars produced by the union-run auto companies that were taken over by Obama with our tax dollars and awarded to the unions.

So, in 2010 and 2012 – in order to save America – do not vote for any Democrat. Just say "no" to Obama's socialism. Believe me, our government will hear us, loudly and clearly, when we run the tax and spend Democrats out of Congress.

Frances Rice

*******************Ms. Frances Rice in the diretoer of the Black Republican Association. The NBRA was founded in 2005 to be a permanent black Republican presence working to enhance ties between the black community and the Republican Party.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

The powers in Washington, D.C. seem to be living in a parallel universe from the one the rest of the nation occupies. Even worse is the way the Obama White House and Democrat controlled Congress appears to be hell-bent on destroying the economy before they can be voted out of office.

No Congress since the days of the Great Depression and the Roosevelt administration has been driven to pass legislation that is more injurious to the present and future of the nation. It began with the so-called Stimulus Act that is widely seen as a failure, followed by Obamacare, the government takeover of one sixth of the economy replete with the rationing of care that will literally kill some people.

On Wednesday the President signed "financial reform" legislation that will play havoc with the financial industry while expanding government regulation still further.

Let us examine the reality. Washington tells us that the unemployment rate is 9.5%. Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence has been closely following unemployment data. His survey in May revealed that 28% of a thousand households reported that at least one member was looking for a full-time job.

Mayur’s firm owns the TIPP polling unit, a polling partner for Investors’ Business Daily and Christian Science Monitor. The June poll revealed 27.8% of households experiencing unemployment and, in the second week of July, it showed 28.6%. That translates to an unemployment rate of more than 22%!

The so-called financial reform act is likely to be as great a power grab as Obamacare, but it totally ignores the root cause of the 2008 financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government sponsored “entities” whose collapse revealed that many of mortgages granted by banks and lending companies, and then purchased by Fannie and Freddie for bundling and resale were inherently unsound.

Why? Because the government had long been pressuring banks and mortgage lenders to issue mortgages to people who could not afford to borrow the price of a hamburger. They were called “Ninja” loans; no job, no assets.

The concept of the government getting involved in the housing market is based on the notion of “social justice” and the belief that everyone had a “right” to own their own home.Social justice was the basis for Social Security when it was established in the 1930s and later for Medicare/Medicad. Both programs are insolvent.

Everything the FDR administration did prolonged the Great Depression for ten years until the advent of World War Two rescued the economy. The Obama administration is repeating the same mistakes.

In June, Bloomberg Business Week took a look at four scenarios regarding the cost of the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bear in mind that together they hold or guarantee 53% of the nation’s $10.7 trillion in residential mortgages. They operated as shareholder-owned corporations that financed home loans with the tacit support of the federal government.

In February the White House Office of Management & Budget estimated a bailout cost of $160 billion; a December report by Barclays Capital analysts put the figure at $230 billion based on a doubling of defaults and losses averaging 50% of each loan. According to a Congressional Budget Office estimate in August of last year, the figure was estimated to be $389 billion and Sean Egan, president of Egan-Jones Ratings estimated it would come in closer to $1 trillion.

Wall Street and the banks were being lambasted for having purchased the bundled securities Fannie and Freddie were selling them while the White House and Congress ignored these agencies. Well, not totally ignoring them. In October 2008 the government seized control of both. They are not, however, part of the new financial “reform” legislation.

Fannie Mae and the whole system in place since 1938 functioned on what can only be called a system of winks, nods and self-deception.

That mindset led to a 2004 scandal in which the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight revealed a pervasive misapplication of accounting standards. That, in turn, led to the resignation of Fannie Mae CEO, Franklin Raines. In a spooky sidebar, Raines owns the patent on the exchange system for the trading of carbon credits, the objective of the Cap-and-Trade Act under consideration in the Senate.

The debate about what to do with either or both will not even begin until next year. It is useful to keep in mind that the two legislators, Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, who have defended Fannie and Freddie for years, are the authors of the new financial reform bill. The foxes have been in the henhouse for a very long time.

Conservatives think that both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be put out of business and that mortgage loans should be a fully private market enterprise. This alone would likely guarantee that a future financial meltdown regarding mortgage lending would be avoided. A trillion dollars or even several hundred billion dollars is too high a price to permit what has occurred to occur again.

When the new, expanded government reforms kick in, there is no telling what effect they will have on the economy, but they are unlikely to be good. Believing anything the government has to say these days is a very bad idea.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

*****************Something has been troubling me for months now. I have not been able to shake the feeling that Obama knows his political party is going to take an enormous hit this coming November in the Mid-Term Elections and yet, he doesn’t seem to care – at all!

Surely of the thousands of “politics watchers” such as me, others have had this same feeling, right? If so, they have been oddly quiet about it -- until now, that is.

Finally, a man I admire, tremendously, has written of this observation, and he has expressed some ideas about it that I believe are spot-on. I am referring to Charles Krauthammer.

Mr. Krauthammer is a man who obviously places great value in thinking before he speaks… or writes, as the case may be. As a man who is greatly challenged physically, yet uses his mind with the dexterity of a steel trap, he is something of an, well, I won’t say “idol” because that is breaking a commandment. So, allow me to admit that I “look up” to Mr. Krauthammer as a college student would to a world-class professor of political science. (Actually, a professor of political science is a very bad fit here, because it has been my experience that most political science professors are of the elite, liberal, progressive genre and not to my liking, at all.)

I once had a friend, and fellow employee, who became a political science professor. That ended our friendship. We haven’t spoken in years. But I digress.

Turns out, Mr. Krauthammer has been thinking along the same lines as me concerning Obama’s lack of concern over the disastrous outcome of the Mid-term Election. And he tells us why. Before I quote him, I’d like to advise my Republican friends to pay close attention – I mean – REAL close.

Mr. Krauthammer begins this way: “I have a warning for Republicans: Don't underestimate Barack Obama.” THAT got MY attention. He goes on to say:

“Consider what he has already achieved. Obamacare alone makes his presidency historic. It has irrevocably changed one-sixth of the economy, put the country inexorably on the road to national health care and, as acknowledged by Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus but few others, begun one of the most massive wealth redistributions in U.S. history.”

He goes on to remind readers of the financial reform that passed the Congress just a few days ago, and the President has now signed into law, and he points out, yet again, that it will give the government “unprecedented power in the financial marketplace.”

Mr. Krauthammer goes on to say: “But Obama's most far-reaching accomplishment is his structural alteration of the U.S. budget. The stimulus, the vast expansion of domestic spending, the creation of ruinous deficits as far as the eye can see are not easily reversed.”

Pointing out that the US is headed for national insolvency he says the following: “That will require massive tax increases -- most likely a European-style value-added tax. Just as President Reagan cut taxes to starve the federal government and prevent massive growth in spending, Obama's wild spending -- and quarantining health-care costs from providing possible relief -- will necessitate huge tax increases.”

We have warned our readers for months now that an avalanche of new and bigger taxes is on the way. I am beginning to believe that the use of the word “avalanche” was ill advised of me. Using the word “avalanche” greatly diminishes the size and scope of the massive taxes with which we are about to inundated. I apologize for that.

Mr. Krauthammer warns that Obama’s critics, from both the left and the right, do not understand that Obama’s Agenda comes in two parts. Part one is now completed. He, too, says the Democrats will pay the price by losing one or both of the houses of Congress in November.

Now – here’s the thing: In order for Obama to accomplish the second half of his agenda requires his reelection in 2012.

So, what can we expect in Obama’s second term? According to Mr. Krauthammer we can expect “massive regulation of the energy economy, federalizing higher education and "comprehensive" immigration reform (i.e., amnesty).”

The democrats already know this and that is the source of their consternation with Obama. They know he doesn’t give a darn about their problem, which for many could mean the end of their political careers. Even if the democrats lose the Congress in November, gaining reelection might be easier for Obama because he will have a GOP controlled Congress to run against.

If you have not already picked up on it, pay attention and you will note that democratic candidates in this coming election are running against the Bush Administration. Obama assists by blaming all his mistakes on the Bush Administration. (NOTHING is EVER HIS fault. But, hey! That’s narcissism for ya!) Blaming a Republican House of Representatives, or a Republican Senate, or a Republican Congress will be a natural fit for him. And, Lord knows, he WILL spread it thick.

No, Obama doesn’t give a fig if the Democrats are wiped out this November. It’s all about him – and his reelection in 2012.

The GOP had better wake-up and be darned sure to offer a slate of candidates conservatives can, and will, vote for. Otherwise, they should save the campaign money for another time, because Obama is going to beat them “like” a drum in 2012. Honestly, as I consider the names being floated about by the GOP, I don’t see a single one I can give my vote to and be honest with myself and remain true to my convictions. Not a one!

I understand that US politics is so corrupt now that even ASKING a good man or a good woman to run for office is considered an insult! Americans who live out here in the hinterlands are disgusted with the state of our government and occasionally one hears the muffled desire for a “do over.”

I am convinced that the US cannot continue, as a viable country, with the government having been hi-jacked by a bunch of jackleg progressive politicians the likes of which have not been seen since the days of the Carpetbaggers in period of continued “de-construction” of the Southern states after the WBTS. There are just too many good people in America who want no part of the kind of corrupt government ruling over us today. No. They want their country back. Barring that, eventually they will exercise their only remaining option. Even today, in certain parts of America, “Halftime” is not a reference to football.

This is why the Mid-Term Election is so critical for America’s rescue. Wresting control from the socialists, Marxists, and progressives at the ballot box will buy time for the changes that must be made in our government in order to return the US to its rightful place as a constitutional “representative” republic. If we fail – then my best advice to all Americans is the old motto of the Boy Scouts – “Be Prepared.”

In a letter to his wife, Abigail, in 1775, John Adams said the following: “But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever.")

One of Mr. Adams’ observations bears, I think, great value to the situation we find ourselves in as Americans today. He said: “Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.") (From “Thoughts on Government,” 1776)

Our less than esteemed politicians, from the White House, to the Congress, to the Supreme Court apparently have forgotten this or simple refuse to accept it truth. Perhaps, they are ignoring it because it does not fit into their template for a Socialists America.

Whatever the case, they would do well to absorb the wisdom of Founding Father Mr. John Adams, and do everything in their power and apply their efforts to those who believe that America is worth rescuing from the clutches of those who have hi-jacked this nation with the intent to fundamentally change America into something she was never meant to be – a socialist society where mediocrity reigns.

America: From A “SNAFU” To A “FUBAR”A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet******************

In an article at Townhall.com entitled “Our Big Mistake,” Cal Thomas says: “The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is dismantling the America we have known and loved and transforming it into something it has never been: a socialist state. If we let them do it, there will be no forgiveness, no excuse, and no going back. And our shame will be an indelible stain for which future generations will judge us.” (SOURCE)

How RIGHT he is! Mr. Thomas is pointing something out, to his readers, which we warned of, long and loud, during the presidential campaign of 2008. We did not SUGGEST this would happen, we told you, flat out, that if WOULD happen, not because we are so darned smart, but because history has taught us that you cannot place men like Obama in power and NOT expect them to assume dictatorial powers even if that means fundamentally transforming the country into a socialist dung heap in order to secure that power unto themselves. But, then again, it was not only we who predicted this, it was Obama, himself, who promised “fundamental change” in America.

Well, America elected Obama and as the bumper sticker asks: “How’s that hopey/changey thingy working out for you, huh?” I’d have to answer as the old farm boy that I am: “Not too goooood!” The fact of the matter is – it is an unmitigated disaster!

Mr. Thomas goes on to say: The taxing and regulating has only just begun. The Obama people are not intrinsically evil. Like someone caught up in a cult, they sincerely believe in the fiction they are peddling: more taxes will produce a healthier economy; the record debt is not a problem; more regulation will result in banks and big businesses operating ethically and for the greater good of their customers and the country; nationalized health care will mean better care for the sick; unrestricted abortion and same-sex marriage are fine; unenforced immigration laws are good because Democrats need to import votes and Republicans want cheap labor.” (SOURCE)I have a slight disagreement with Mr. Thomas here. The people of the Obama Regime may not be intrinsically evil, but, taken as a whole, I am very afraid that, collectively, they have become evil.

The country is broke and Obama and his socialist cronies with their socialist/marxist agenda for America are making it “broker.” America is so deep in a financial hole it will literally take generations to get out -- IF we are fortunate enough to survive, as a constitutional republic, far enough into the future to make survival as a single fifty-state nation worthwhile. THAT is a BIG if!

Now we know we were lied to about Obamacare. We were lied to about taxes. We were lied to about federally funded abortions under ObamaCare -- and that just scratches the surface of the parade of lies marching in lock step out of the Obama White House. And, as singer Al Jolson used to say: “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Consider the following items on the Left wing/democrat/socialist/marxist/progressive agenda:

Plans for OPEN BORDERS, plans for a ONE-WORLD FOREIGN POLICY, plans to LEGALIZE DRUGS, plans legalize EUTHANASIA, plans to DE CONSTRUCT THE MORAL VALUE AND ATTITUDES OF AMERICA and THE WESTERN WORLD, plans to push PROGRESSIVE IDEOLOGY OF RIGHTS AND ENTITLEMENTS, plans for the “get richer” scheme for America’s elite -- referred to as the CAP AND TRADE SYSTEM, and more, much more.

Just consider the Democratic Party today. Some say socialists have HIJACKED THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, AND NOW they OWN IT LOCK, STOCK and BARREL. (I’m not entirely sure the Democratic Party WAS hi-jacked by the socialists. I tend to lean toward what I believe is closer to the truth -- and that is that the Democratic Party found it had much more in common with the socialists than it did with democratic Americans and, therefore, simply embraced the socialist agenda and made it theirs. The handful of true democrats remaining in that political party are sick at heart over what has happened to their political party. But, again, if history tells us anything -- it is that the Democratic Party is lost, forever, to socialism/Marxism.Republicans should not become complacent, for the same socialist movement is creeping into the GOP’s fold and will, if not ruthlessly stamped out, consume them, as well.

Shortly after the Obama Regime took power in the US we speculated as to whom, exactly, was running the Obama Regime. Many of us, with the same question, came to refer to this behind the scenes puppeteer as the Shadow Government. It was quickly apparent to practiced observers of American politics that someone was pulling Obama’s strings and had been for a very long time.For a young man to come out of near obscurity, with a shadowy history, to suddenly appear in the limelight and gather such a following does not just happen. It is carefully, meticulously, planned over years. Obama is that man.

Obama, with seeming messianic powers, became a fatal attraction for millions of American who bought his promises and fell in behind him as the children of Hamelin did the Pied Piper. The results are turning out to be very much alike.

Obama is America’s Big Mistake. It may yet be a fatal mistake.

This November, in the Mid-Term Election, Americans have a chance to blunt the power of Obama and the man, or men, behind him, the puppeteer, sometimes referred to as the shadow government. In order to do so conservatives must vote in record numbers against the democratic candidates and GOP candidates who have shown any inclination toward supporting Obama’s socialist/marxist agenda. We must regain control of at least one house of the Congress.

As to the title for this column – SNAFU is an old military acronym. It stands for “Situation Normal – All ****** Up! America normally is, shall we say, “messed” up. But that is the hallmark of a democratic nation. Believe me, it would have been much worse had our forefather not chosen to create a constitutional “representative” republic for the people of this country.

When Obama and his minions took control of the US government “SNAFU” was the order of the day. Within eighteen months, or so, the Obama Regime has managed to take America from “SNAFU” to “FUBAR,” which means “****** up Beyond All Recognition.” I suspect that is why so many Americans do not recognize their country anymore.

“Those words are not in my vocabulary,” he says. “We’re going to work on pollution.”Senator Reid’s twenty-pound bill will be laden with lofty language about “clean energy,” energy conservation, “green jobs,” reducing “dangerous” power plant emissions, ending our “addiction” to oil, creating a renewable economy, and saving the planet from “imminent climate disaster.”

Environmental euphemisms aside, however, the legislation is really about imposing national “low carbon fuel standards” (LCFS) and forcing dramatic reductions in the use of oil, natural gas and especially coal. It would expand on existing laws, regulations and decrees, like the Environmental Protection Agency’s ruling that carbon dioxide somehow “endangers human health and welfare,” EPA’s June 30 invalidation of flexible air quality permits for Texas refineries, Interior Secretary Salazar’s offshore drilling moratorium, multiple state and federal renewable energy standards and mandates, and various state and regional “greenhouse gas initiatives” that restrict emissions from power plants and industrial facilities.

The EPA, Energy Information Administration, White House and Mr. Reid insist that America can easily limit hydrocarbon use and switch to “eco-friendly” wind, solar and biofuel energy – at low cost and minimal harm to families, businesses and jobs. However, their self-serving, other-planet claims are flatly contradicted by a host of studies by reputable analysts with a solid history of integrity and accuracy.

The most recent is a June 17 report by Charles River Associates, examining the “Economic and Energy Impacts Resulting from a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard.” Prepared for the Consumer Energy Alliance, the study looked only at transportation fuels. (Including coal for electricity generation and other uses would dramatically increase its cost estimates.)

Nevertheless, the study found that national standards implemented in 2015 would:* Increase average gasoline and diesel prices by up to 80% in five years, and 170% within ten years – sending regular gasoline prices soaring to nearly $5 per gallon by 2020 and $7.50 per gallon by 2025 (assuming other international price pressures remain unchanged);* Spur sharp cost increases for petrochemicals in plastics, pharmaceuticals and other vital products;

* Cut business investment by $200-320 billion annually, compared to the no-LCFS baseline;

* Slash gross domestic product by $410-750 billion annually by 2025;

* Cost 2.3 million to 4.5 million American jobs, including up to 1.5 million in manufacturing and 3.0 million in the service sector; and

* Force household purchasing power downward by $1,400 to $2,400 for a family of four by 2025 – impacting minority, elderly and other low and fixed income families worst of all.

None of this should be surprising. As President Obama himself has said, the very purpose of energy and climate policies like LCFS is to ensure that prices “necessarily skyrocket.” It is to force people to use less fuel, compel companies to change power generation and use practices, drive coal companies and utilities out of business, and force the development of new fuels and technologies that may or may not work.

All on the premise that we waste energy and are causing a planetary meltdown. Climate change is real, and has been since the dawn of time. But there is no consensus and no evidence that carbon dioxide is the primary factor in global warming and cooling, or that humans are causing a climate disaster. Assertions, assumptions and computer models are not evidence, and cannot justify what Harry Reid is pushing.

Restricting, taxing, regulating and penalizing the hydrocarbon fuels that provide 85% of America’s energy would severely hobble our free enterprise system and impact jobs, families, living standards, and basic rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Doubling the price of electricity in our industrial heartland – where coal provides 50-95% of all electrical power – would kill millions of jobs, and send millions of families into fuel poverty.

Renewable energy is intermittent, unreliable, land and raw materials intensive, and unsustainable without government mandates and constant infusions of “other people’s money” in the form of subsidies. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus might be ecstatic that an F/A-18 fighter jet recently flew on biofuel av-gas. But brewing $65-per-gallon fuel from camelina is hardly sustainable, even for the Defense Department.

As to the great utopian vision of “green jobs,” Spain’s subsidy-driven wind turbine industry cost the country 2.2 jobs for every eco-job it created, according to studies by Dr. Gabriel Calzada. And when the global recession hit, the subsidies dried up, the turbine-making jobs disappeared, and hundreds of wind and solar companies were driven to the precipice of bankruptcy.

Wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars require “rare earth” metals. America’s probable deposits are locked up in wilderness areas, which leaves China as the world’s predominant producer. So the bulk of the green manufacturing jobs will be in China – while we will get the temp jobs hauling, assembling and installing components made in the Middle Kingdom and shipped to the United States.

Thus, China, India and Brazil will continue to surge forward on plentiful coal and metals, cheap labor, affordable electricity, a can-do attitude, laxer environmental standards, and a rational refusal to accept legally binding carbon dioxide reductions. Thus, even if the USA went cold turkey, and completely shut down all greenhouse-gas-spewing factories, homes and cars, these developing country emissions would overwhelm our sacrifices within a few months, and atmospheric CO2 levels would continue to rise.

And for what? Cars and power plants are already 90% cleaner than their 1970s era predecessors. Climate change is moderate and primarily natural. Mr. Reid’s formula is all pain, for no environmental gain.

Even bright high school students understand this. US senators certainly ought to. But Harry Reid is hoping 60 do not. That’s the magic number he needs to regulate not just one-sixth of our economy (the healthcare sector), but 100% – because nothing happens without abundant, reliable, affordable energy. And enacting any form of fuel rationing legislation will put Congress and bureaucrats firmly in charge of our lives, liberties, hopes, dreams and rights.

Either Mr. Reid’s cadre doesn’t understand these basic facts – or they are so blinded by power, ambition, ideology and desire to control that they willfully ignore them.Climate change truly is a huge moral issue. What the Political-Activist-Industrial Complex is doing in the name of preventing climate change and creating a green economy is un-American and immoral. Applied to poor countries, to restrict their access to abundant, reliable energy, it becomes lethal and inhumane. It can no longer be tolerated.

Be alert. Speak out. And beware of energy and climate dictators and charlatans, and any lame duck session that may come after citizens vote to replace many of the control freaks on Capitol Hill.

Paul Driessen__________Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (http://www.cfact.org/) and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death.

There is no single duty that a President has as Commander-in-Chief that is more important than ensuring the nation’s engines of defense remain at a level that will deter and defend against any attack upon America or its allies.

How is that going under the Obama Administration? As this is being written, the U.S. Air Force and Navy are seeking alternative ways of powering their aircraft after having been ordered to cut fuel costs by $20 billion. The Obama solution includes an August test flight of the C-17 transport aircraft attempt to fly missions on tallow, which is a nice way of describing animal fat.

The push for biofuels notwithstanding, the notion approaches absurdity considering the fact that, beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, there are millions of untapped barrels of oil to power military aircraft. The absurdity is compounded by the White House attempt to shut down deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico which has been struck down by the courts not once, but twice.

My interest in the status of our air defense was piqued while watching a recent C-SPAN broadcast of some Senate committee discussing funding of the C-17. I paid scant attention until one senator said, “We don’t have the money.” Suffice to say, that caught my attention.

Of course we have the money! There are billions unspent in the failed “stimulus” act and millions more wasted weekly across the spectrum of a government that funds all manner of idiotic “research” programs of dubious value. Some $20 million was just spent on signs touting construction projects funded by the stimulus bill.As Frank Gaffney, the founder and president of the Center for Security Policy, recently noted, “Barack Obama came to office promising to ‘fundamentally transform’ America.” Gaffney and others are increasingly concerned that Obama is “changing the United States from ‘the world’s sole superpower’ to a nation that may require the permission, or at least the help, of others to project power and defend its interests around the globe.”

Nothing invites mischief and outright attack more than weakness. Theodore Roosevelt said, “The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.” The latter is a good description these days of Iran.

“The backbone of America’s power-projection capability is its ability to get to a fight ‘the firstest with the mostest,’” wrote Gaffney. Something tells me that doing it with aircraft fueled by slaughterhouse renderings is a very bad idea.

No less important is the future of our fighter jet fleet. It is the subject of a huge congressional debate concerning the next generation of fighters, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). More specifically, the debate involves the engine to power it. But the rub doesn’t involve which engine to use; the argument is whether the F-35 engine should be sole-sourced to a single manufacturer or whether production should be shared by two manufacturers.

One engine is the F135, made by Pratt & Whitney. As with any technological advance, Pratt & Whitney encountered various problems in the development process because the F-35 is designed for use by three different service branches, each with different missions and engine requirements.

More to the point, these services comprise the overwhelming majority of our national jet fighter capability so many in Congress are advocating the production of a second engine. That would be the F136, produced jointly by General Electric and Rolls Royce.

The issue centers on fleet reliability and comes down to an easy and obvious question: Is it prudent for 80-90% of the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corp’s fighter jet fleet to be dependent on a single engine from a sole-source provider? The answer is no.

If mechanical flaws or difficulties occur, or if that sole-source provider suffers an industrial accident, a labor dispute or terrorist attack, the entire fighter fleet could be grounded.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) laid it out in starker terms, noting, “Because the JSF is expected to be the primary fighter aircraft in the U.S. inventory, and Pratt & Whitney will also be the sole-source provider of F119 engines for the F-22A aircraft, DOD is faced with the potential scenario where almost the entire fleet could be dependent on similar engine cores, produced by the same contractor in a sole-source environment.”

Despite the strategic risks noted by the GAO, the GE/Rolls Royce engine has been batted about in Congress like a ping pong ball. As Defense Industry Daily noted some years ago, “The Pentagon attempted to remove Fiscal Year 2007 funding from the F-35 Lightning II’s second engine option, the GE/Rolls Royce F136.” But eliminating that funding wasn’t so neat and tidy, and the newspaper further reported, “Many in the U.S. Congress, meanwhile, were openly skeptical of handing Pratt & Whitney’s F135 engine the keys to the entire F-35 fleet.”

F136 funding was re-inserted and development continued on schedule until the FY 2008 budget came around and the Pentagon again tried to remove funding. Congress disagreed and, supported by the GAO’s estimate of $20 billion of tax savings over the life of the program with both the F135 and the F136 engines, again reinstated funding.

Production on the F-35 is increasing but testing is not expected to be complete before 2014 and the engine issue remains unresolved. The Obama Administration now considers avoiding the risk of a systemic sole-source engine failure as a luxury and seems willing to back up that position.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has reportedly urged President Obama to veto the 2011 defense authorization bill if the final version includes any money for the GE/Rolls Royce engine.

I cite this to alert you to the irrationality that is driving decisions affecting our most vital national defense capabilities. When a Secretary of Defense proposes a veto of an entire defense authorization over an additional engine for the next generation of fighter jets we’re witnessing something that’s not just absurd; it’s reckless.

The notion that we can’t afford a second F-35 engine is not true. What we cannot afford is to permit our jet fighter fleet and our air transport fleet be put at an indefensible risk when the fate of the nation rests upon both.

About Me

J. D. Longstreet is a conservative Southern American (A native sandlapper and an adopted Tar Heel) with a deep passion for the history, heritage, and culture of the southern states of America. At the same time he is a deeply loyal American believing strongly in “America First”.